Library Careers: Law Libraries

Law librarians primarily work in law offices and law school university libraries. If you are thinking about becoming a librarian, this article will explain the role of law librarians, and how to prepare yourself for entry into this career field. Your ability to get hired as a law librarian depends more upon experience than education, so it is important to prepare yourself if you want to enter the profession.

How to Become a Law Librarian: Job Description

Law librarians who work in law firms fulfill typical library duties, like technical services, cataloging, circulation, and collection development. They also manage the firm's online legal databases. They must become database searching experts. While most law firms use Westlaw and Lexis Nexis, your access to these as a library student is severely limited. You won't get any access unless you take a legal research course, and in that case you will only get it for the semester. But, once you really immerse yourself in database search methods, you can become an expert anyway. Use the research databases that you have as much as you can, and learn as many search techniques as are available to you. This can be very helpful, since the law librarian is the person who will be asked to search for information of any nature that is difficult to find.

How to Become a Law Librarian: Legal Research Expectations

Law librarians are legal research experts. That does not mean that you need to know everything that there is to know about the law. It just means that you need to know everything about how to find it. Take a legal research class early on in your library program. If your library school does not offer legal research, look at local law schools and take a course there. Law librarians who work in law firms are rarely required to have a law degree. In fact, most law librarians do not have a law degree. If you want to work in a university law library, you will be expected to teach, and in that case a J.D. is required. If you already have a law degree, consider becoming a law librarian! Since the field is so focused on research skills, attorneys may be hired as law librarians without the library MLS.

There are many reasons that you might want to become a law librarian. Law librarian salaries are generally higher than librarians in other fields. Law librarians do a lot of research, and research projects can be complex. Law offices are nice work environments. A law firm may have only one law librarian, or a small group of law librarians. This means that you will have a high level of authority in your library, if not complete authority. If this appeals to you, consider becoming a law librarian!